Philip Kives, Founder of K-tel, dies at 87

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/music/philip-kives-founder-of-k-tel-dead-at-87-377361531.html

The man who brought you the Miracle Brush, the Veg-o-matic and millions of albums containing 25 Country Hits or Hooked on Classics died Wednesday.

Philip Kives was 87.

Born on a Jewish colony farm near Oungre, Sask., Feb. 12, 1929, Kives came to Winnipeg in 1962 to create the company that bore the first letter of his last name, K-Tel.

Kives produced a live, five-minute TV commercial — the first infomercial, he claimed — to sell a Teflon non-stick frying pan, and sales took off afterwards. From then on he always wrote and directed all the TV commercials.

But wait, there’s more.

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If you grew up in the 70's, nearly half the ads you saw on TV were K-tel product ads.

My 8-tracks were a mess UNTIL this:

Cross gently, Mr Kives...

[stopbush]

1. But wait! There's more!

Who could forget those words?

[Bjornsdotter]

2. Still have all of my K-Tel albums

[csziggy]

3. Without K-Tel we'd never have had comedy moments like this

[underpants]

4. My first CCR album was K-Tel. Own two Kooky Tunes albums.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Awwwww! I always wanted one of these: